I’d like to talk to you today about what the typical penalties are if you blow over the limit, that is if you blow eighty milligrams (80 mg) of alcohol in 100 millilitres (ml) of blood or above.Parliament fairly recently, in 2018 in fact, brought in new laws about this mandatory minimums, so if your readings are between 80 to just below 120, you are facing a mandatory minimum fine of one-thousand dollars ($1,000.00) first of all. Now if your readings are 120 to below, just below 160, say 159, than you are facing a fine of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500.00), that’s the mandatory minimum, minimum, it could be higher than that, that you face, and finally, if your readings are 160 or above, you’re facing a two-thousand dollar ($2,000.00) mandatory minimum fine. Now, if there’s aggravating features in your case, you could be facing higher fines. For example, if there’s children in your car as I reviewed in a previous video, or there’s an accident on the 401 , even on first offence, if there’s no injuries, you could face a short jail term or higher fines as an example. Now, typically, on a very first time offence, you are going to face the mandatory minimum one year driving prohibition, and the Ministry’s going to take away your licence for the same one year. I covered Stream A ignition interlock in another video which I encourage you to watch. So those are your typical penalties. The victim fine surcharge, is 30% of the fines on top of that. If you could show financial hardship, the judge and their discretion can agree to eliminate the victim fine surcharge, but those are the typical penalties for a garden variety DUI, where there’s no injuries, not an aggravated situation, you hopefully can have your lawyer, at least negotiate the minimums but as I mentioned, if it’s more serious, situations, you may face higher fines or even a short jail term. If it’s really serious, like having a child in the car or that accident situation on the 401.
